Archive for August, 2010

The “Balanced Scorecard” and “Business Process Management” modules for Microsoft Dynamics AX will no longer be offered by Microsoft and all associated SKUs will be removed from the respective Microsoft Dynamics price lists effective December 1, 2010. This August announcement provides partners with the 120-days’ notice required pursuant to the Solution Provider Agreement (SPA).

Ultimate Software’s specific Shipping Solution is an ERP system for martitime shipping companies, that is developed on the Microsoft Dynamics AX platform to cater for shipping companies: liners, vessel operators, agencies, ports etc

In the UK the summer holidays, when Paliament is closed, the newspapers are often short of main stories and resort to fill in news items on unusual or fun topics, the so called ‘silly season’. So, with Ramadan working hours and temperatures in the mid 40 s the Synergy Carrom tournament is underway, at end of each day.

Last Friday 10 local construction experts gave up their Friday off day to visit our offices. Why? word of mouth across companies spread the message that there would be a chance to find out more about BIM concpets and why ‘lean’construction techiques are having such an impact.

Vico Office is a different way of working with BIM models. Used for much more than visualization, Vico Office extends the basic 3D model with constructability analysis and coordination, 4D scheduling and production control with flowline principles, and 5D estimating. If you missed out contact us to learn more and read the articles on this blog site, or vist You Tube and see the many demos there.

Let me touch on just one part f the Vico Office Suite that will provide a rapid payback for any construction company.Before you can get any benefit from 3, 4 or 5D BIM you need 2D drawings to start with. Vico Doc Set Manager is an innovative solution for collating and comparing thousands of construction drawing sets. We refer to Doc Set Manager as our 2D BIM solution because a successful 3D BIM model starts with identifying changes in the 2D drawing set.

Each project team uses the Doc Set Manager to store their drawing sets and to ckly identify either any missing pages, o r pages on which there have been changes.

Using the mark-up tools, users can quickly cloud and comment on the changes, and assign additional investigation and follow-up to team members.

Does Doc Set Manager automatically highlight the changes?

Yes, it will highlight the changes; it will highlight any line work that has been manipulated or touched in any way. It is up to you to decide “will this highlighted change impact the project?” - only you and your team can decide that.

Where does Doc Set Manager store the DWGs?

Doc Set Manager is a collaborative tool that supports local area networks. This means you can locate the DWG or PDF file anywhere in the network. You just need to make sure that all project members have access to the network.

How does the drawing compare with sheets vs. xref’s?

Comparing DWG with xref is possible. Doc Set Manager will compare anything you provide. So if you provide DWG with xref it will present the full DWG file and compare it to the other DWG file . If you would like only to compare the xref just load those to the folder and they will be listed in the Document Register and you can compare them separately.

Do clouds need to be entered in separately each time on future versions?

If you draw a cloud and it is still an active issue,then it will always be presented and automatically be copied to future versions.

Do I need to buy Vico Office Client with Doc Set Manager?

Yes, you do. Vico Office Client enables the collaborative workflow, assignments, resolution, and reporting in Doc Set Manager. As noted earlier, you might like to get 2-3 extra licenses to share with your owner, architect, and subcontractors.

Would MEP designs be too complex to check in this environment?

No, definitely not.

Does DWG comparison work in paper space?

Yes, how you might use that is to look for date changes, name changes, revisions triangle markers, etc. If you want to check for keynotes or move keynotes, Doc Set Manager will pick up on those in paper space, as well.

Sometimes highlighting doesn’t work so well. For example an unchanged line sometimes is color coded as changed. How does that work in the system?

That’s where the Document Register is most helpful in that the Register will tell you that the drawing has or has not changed from the last set to the newer set. If the Register has indicated red and that the drawing has changed you can work with the color scheme to find any problem but it should not be that difficult with the flexibility of all the tools in the color palette.

Does this work with Revit?

The answer is yes and what you would do is export the view or drawing that you wanted as a PDF and you would be all set to compare.

Can I batch plot the actual DWG’s including the mark ups?

Yes, if you have a set of files with mark ups on these then you can print all together as one report with all the clouds and the ability to zoom in the clouds to get more detail.

If I’m working in Revit, how can I make a PDF so it will be useful for this software?

You can use the export to PDF function or if you have a PDF virtual printer you can use this to create the PDF files.

Can two or more persons work on one comparison file together?

Yes, absolutely. The product is designed for a collaborative environment meaning multiple users can access the same project: view the same file, compare the same file, create clouds, etc. All this can be done simultaneously.

Q: How long has Vico software been on the market and how widely is it used at this point?

A: About 6 years. So the customers that started have been using this software for that whole period. There are sabout 200 clients globally… More than 100 GC’s in the U.S. There are more than 1000 trained users in the U.S. In addition, the Vico Construction Services Team have guided over 350 BIM projects around the world.

…………and if you really want to save a lot of time and money consider line of balance scheduling (a oncept used for the Empire State Building!)

Vico Control is a unique construction scheduling software because it features flowline theory. This allows the scheduler to work collaboratively with the superintendent to create an optimal schedule based on quantities by location and productivity rates. Equally important is the ability to “control” the schedule on-site to forecast crew pile-ups and interferences based on actual productivity rates. With this real-time data, the scheduler and superintendent can work together to adjust crew sizes by location to keep the project on track.

Keep your system up to date with the most recent cumulative update package for SQL Server 2005 SP3. This package contains all of the SQL Server 2005 hotfixes that have been released since the initial release of SQL Server 2005 SP3.

How much of your business data is stored in widely accessible files on shared network storage. -stored files typically make up as much as 80% of business data, according to market analyst firm IDC.

Not only is this data valued by businesses and regulators, but it is prized by malicious insiders. For example,

last July, a former Goldman Sachs worker was arrested for downloading software source code with the intention of taking it with him to a new employer.

in 2009, a Microsoft employee was accused of stealing documents he planned to use in a lawsuit against the company.

, in March 2010, the Canada Revenue Agency, Canada’s equivalent to the US Internal Revenue Service, disclosed that CRA employees had been accessing hundreds of files and using the information for everything from financial gain to providing preferential treatment for friends and relatives.

. Regulations that address data security–such as Sarbanes Oxley (SOX), Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and others–apply equally to files, databases, applications, etc. So, even if an organization uses financial applications and databases to manage their finances, when financial data that is governed by SOX is exported to a spreadsheet for manipulation, the handling of the spreadsheet must also comply.

Mid-level managers use Business applications and databases to export interesting data for analysis, reporting, presentations and other legitimate business activities. For example, six months of sales data from your CRM to assess ales trends or to identify operational issues are legitimate sues – but when and presentations containing exported information are stored on shared file systems for enhanced communications and collaboration, then you have a data security risk that it will each competirs

If that data is financial in nature, includes credit card information or has customer details, you may also have a SOX, PCI or personally identifiable information (PII)-related compliance issue to address.

Group based file security policies, diabling usb drives and ports etc is one line of defence

The other is a network monitoring system with alerts and dashbaord indicators that allow you to quickly identify possible breaches and to drilldown to the soruce of who copied,or prined, or emailed or chatted about what to whom and when with an evidence trail. This certainty of detection is perhaps the biggest deterrent.

For more information on inexpensive solutions to safeguard your valuble information call us and ask for Kamlesh -00971 4 3365589.

Dubai RTA has fined over 12,000 jaywalkers this year. wtih fines increased to Dh 200 this is now becoming an effective deterrent.

Note that crossing a road with a speed limit of 80 kph, or greater, is illegal other than at designated crossing points.

It would be nice to see some of the fines spent on creating more safe crossing points for those without cars who often have a very long walk in high temperatures to reach a crossing.

Maybe something will also be done about cyclists who wear dark clothes and who ride on the wrong side of the road in the dark, and who switch lanes without any concept of looking, or giving a signal -usually because they have no mirrors.

The world has been ‘shrinking’ for a long time with modern transport and ease of travel. More recently the internet, emails , mobile phones, text messages, on line chat, Twitter , RSS feeds, Facebook , You Tube, Skype etc have provided real time information and communication about almost everything, at any time, both from and to any location.

One benefit for our clients is that we are able to give rapid, dial-in web support to anywhere in the region. We are similarly able to get collaboration, training and support from our global partners and access on line knowledgebases and updated help files.

Although operating out of Dubai we support clients in every country in the region from Lebanon to Egypt. Currently we have projects running in KSA, Bahrain, Egypt, Philippines as well as the U.A.E.

Synergy’s focus on implementation for international clients and its reputation for solution architecture, delivery and support has always meant that we work with the leading global vendors and implementation partners. This came home to me this week when I realised that in this month we have already had new inquires for our services in: Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, India, KSA, Canada, Nigeria, Malaysia and for local implementations from partners in UK and U.S.A. and Europe.

This week marks the worldwide general availability of Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail,

A new solution for midsized, specialty retailers it offers a deep level of integration across point of sale, store management, supply chain, merchandising and financialsin a single solution.

Retailers face ever-expanding opportunity with more channels to reach their customers and to grow globally, and unprecedented challenges.to serve an empowered consumer with access to more information and choice than ever before.

Retail customers search the web for comparative prices. and cross-shop for the latest promotion or competitor down the street Retailers need to leverage IT in new ways to drive visibility across the organization to react quickly, seize new opportunities, and to build customer loyalty.

According to a recent analyst report*, as many as 84 percent of retail respondents recognized they do not have good integration and connectivity between stores, headquarters and the supply chain, preventing them from having the visibility they need. Retailers mustalso find new ways to make their most valuable asset – people – more productive.

To address these challenges, retailers can adopt a “Connected Experience for Retail.”to capture customer information at the point of sale and to populatethe data in real time at headquarters and across the entire chain of stores to be acted upon immediately.

A store associate who can provide real time visibility to a customer about product availability and location – helps to build loyalty and differentiated service;

A RoleTailored user experience for each employee optimized to drive speed of service, reduce training times, and drive organizational efficiency.

Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail offers all of this and more out of the box. It’s more than another retail solution – it’s a new philosophy in how to deliver a retail solution, to reduce complexity, and to address the pains that retailersface.

With the initial launch, Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail is available in more than 16 markets, including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Africa, the U.K. and the U.S.

Moving to Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 : a book that will help professional developers move from previous versions of Visual Studio (starting with 2003 and on up). the emphasis is on new tools and features from Visual Studio 2010

According to Gartner, “Vendors placed in the Leaders quadrant of Gartner’s Sales Force Automation Magic Quadrant demonstrate a market-defining vision of how technology can help the top sales executives achieve business objectives. Leaders have the ability to execute against that vision through products, services and demonstrated solid business results in the form of revenue and earnings. Leaders have significant successful customer deployments in North America, EMEA and Asia/Pacific in a wide variety of vertical industries with multiple proof points above 500 users.”

Three people have already died on Dubai’s roads in the first three days of Ramadan.

The Fajr prayer commences and the faststarts at around 4.30am and Maghrib, the prayer that marks Iftar, the breaking of the fast, takes place at around 6.50pm – so fasting for something a little over fourteen hours a day

The fast means that nothing may pass your lips, when the ambient temperature’s well into the mid forties (that’s 110F ), a long, long time and it’s debilitating – witha cumulative effect on people’s systems. A road full of tired, distracted and physically weakened drivers means that everyone has a huge additional duty of care – not only those fasting, but those who are not but who could give their fellow drivers a little more leeway than usual.

The RTA have taken a lot of action to improve safety but there are still weekly reoorts of speeding and dangerous drivers and yet more road deaths. Is it too much to expect that a time of spirtitual reflection might also be a time to reassess driving habits so that the mosques are not filled with mourners.

As business accumulate more and more data and erp systems provide end to end integration of functionality across companies analysis of the data is both challenging and crucial. Technology has improved to provide data storage and faster processing via a web front end and OLAP technology .

BI tools come in many shapes and sizes and there is a lot of ‘pretty software’ around. The problem with most BI systems is the development of the cubes, and the lack of a reporting tool, and the result is a long implementation cycle and high software and consulting costs.

ZAP chanegs this.

Advantages of the Zap solution

If you are a Dynamics customer, then ZAP is a complete BI solution with cube building wizards built inro Ax, NAV and CRM, and an easy to use reporting tool, and drill down dashboards. A fast cost effective way to implement BI .

Zap is the only company that is CERTIFIED for Microsoft Dynamics by Microsoft. Zap is the Innovation Partner of the Year 2009 and Dynamics ISV of the year APAC in 2008. This assured status minimizes your risk in your Dynamics BI implementation.

Zap is a very easy to use solution that end users can maintain – both in the ZapBI front end and the Customisation Wizard backend.

Zap is a pure server-centric installation and users only need a browser. This means that all updates and upgrades are on the server. No need to trouble IT to install at each client machine when there are upgrades and updates.

Zap can scale up to thousands of users by simply adding users from the web interface. Major users include Queensland Police service and Coca Cola

Zap Wizard or Dynamiocs products both simplify and shorten the technical process of building cubes and provide a maintainable solution.

One installer providing the features of BI rather than multiple package installations. All features are available upon installation.

The Certified for Windows Server 2008 R2 status highlights that Exclaimer Mail Disclaimers is a stable, reliable and secure product that meets Microsoft’s high standards for compatibility with the Windows Server 2008 R2 platform.

This accolade places Exclaimer Mail Disclaimers at the very top of its class, having become the only email disclaimer software solution to have achieved this status.

Synergy is a well established, solution provider across the Middle East region.
Synergy has a strong presence in several key verticals; Manufacturing, Construction, Hospitality Insurance, Financial Services, Government. Media, Oil and Gas, Distribution.
Synergy is particularly well known as a Gold Partner of both Infor Sunsystems, and Microsoft Dynamics Ax and for its implementation expertise and exceptional support. It is based centrally in Dubai in the Karama district since it was registered in 1991, and occupies a 7,000 sq ft office with around 80 full time employees.